More than 10,173 MTs of food grains Released for Himachal
New Delhi: National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (commonly known as Mid-Day Meal Scheme) today is the largest school nutritional programme in the world covering nearly 14 crore children in more than a million Primary/Upper Primary schools/ Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS)/Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE) centres. The Scheme provides a hot cooked meal of a minimum 450 calories and 12 gms of protein for children attending Primary schools (classes I to IV) and 700 calories and 20 grams of protein for children attending Upper Primary schools (classes VI to VIII) . Under the scheme, Central assistance is provided to States/ UTs for the following components:
Free foodgrains of 100 gms (Rice/wheat) per child, per school day at primary level and @ 150 grams per child per school/ day at upper primary level.
Cooking Assistance @ Rs. 1.58 for Primary ( Rs. 1.89 for North Eastern states) and Rs. 2.10 for Upper Primary ( Rs. 2.415 for North Eastern states) per child, per school day and minimum mandatory contribution of Rs. 0.50/- by the State Government.
Reimbursement of transportation cost upto Rs. 125 per Quintal. for special category states, including Himachal Pradesh.
Assistance for Management, Monitoring and Evaluation @ 1.8% of (i) to (iii).
Assistance for construction of kitchen sheds @ 60,000 per unit and provision of kitchen devices @ 5000 per school.
The main objectives of the Mid- Day Meal Scheme are as under:
Encourage school enrolment and attendance, especially girls and children of disadvantaged groups.
Faster social equality
Promote gender equality
Prevent classroom hunger
Progress in Himachal Pradesh ( 2008-09 ) upto September:
| S.No. | Component | Allocation | Released |
| Primary | |||
| 1. | No. of Children : 5,00,983 | ||
| 2. | Foodgrains allocation (1.4.2008 to 30.9.2008) ( l00gms/child/day) | 11,623 MTs | 6,413.19 MTs |
| 3. | Cooking Cost (Rs.1.58 per child) | 1,836.40 | 461.24 |
| 4. | MME ( Pry. & U.Pry.) | 92.77 | 29.04 |
| Upper Primary | |||
| 1. | No. of Children : 3,50,874 | ||
| 2. | Foodgrains allocation (l50gms/child/day) | 12,210 MTs | 3,760.46 MTs |
| 3. | Cooking Cost (Rs.2.10 per child) | 1,709.45 | 740.96 |
